The Bobcat Nation

This is pretty interesting: http://www.hustlebelt.com/2015/12/18/10 ... up-of-five

Someone should actually go pull the FBS attendance requirements and tell us all why this conference hasn't been relegated to FCS.

Because these schools are FBS which means they are more relevant than FCS schools. BYLAWS BE DAMNED! Ohio just reached the pinnacle of MAC success last night by losing in the Camilla bowl. What a stage upon which to show off the university! What a prestige bump! I'm sure their attendance will skyrocket next year.

/sarcasm off

Thank goodness for the FCS.


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Montanabob wrote:Someone should actually go pull the FBS attendance requirements and tell us all why this conference hasn't been relegated to FCS.

Because they are willing to finance their programs at the FBS level (pay for scholarships). If the BSC had the money and was willing to spend it, we could be FBS as well if we wanted.

Like Gavin notes, though, I don't really see the advantage to being FBS if the result is attendance this low. If a conference were to move up, you'd hope that the increase in talent level and competition would result in average attendances that were at least in the 20s.

The NCAA must not have figured out how to relegate half a conference without there being complete chaos. The whole minimum attendance criteria just doesn't work. There's too many loop holes. If they do actively enforce it we end up stupid shenanigans like Idaho playing their "home" game in Washington State's stadium against Washington State. Eastern Michigan could probably do the same thing with Michigan if they had to.

And the actual attendance numbers are way lower than what is listed as almost everyone counts attendance as tickets sold and not butts in the seats. It's also not fair because of bad weather, and Wednesday night TV games that the MAC always plays. Besides attendance doesn't matter anyway-it's TV ratings that drives the boat nowadays.

Maybe it should just be based on budget, scholarships, and number of sports offered and leave it at that.

Northern Illinois surprised me. They have had some decent teams over the past few years. Guess no fan base.